Celebrity vs. Royal Caribbean vs. Azamara- any feedback

[thefoodguyjamesinasia]

Hi Everyone,

 

We are mostly all fans of Royal Caribbean; but how does that translate to other sister companies of RCCL; ie Crown & Anchor points, dinning, entertianment and overall experience; what are the differences.

 

Both Azamara & Celebrity sail out of our homeport of Hong Kong but what are the postive driving points about taking a cruise with these sister ships? I am loyal to Royal but curious what else is out there... Thanks RC Blog Friends

[WAAAYTOOO]

Celebrity and Royal Caribbean have a reciprocal agreement with their loyalty point.  If you are Diamond on RCI you will be Elite in the Captain's Club...or whatever the equivalent is.  I think it's Elite.

 

The different cruise lines, however, do NOT honor each others' balcony discount program.  Their casino programs are also separate and are not reciprocal.

[DocLC]

WaaayTooo summed it all up very well.

 

I'd say that Celebrity goes for an understated elegance approach and less of the wow factor. You won't find the never-ending activities like on Royal, but they'll keep you busy. I seem to recall more self-enrichment activities on Celebrity.

 

Service is similar, but I'd give the edge to Celebrity. As an example, we took my son to the buffet for dinner where he was selecting from the freshly made sushi. The sushi chef asked what he did and did not like and then made him a special roll that included mango of all things. And while subjective, I found the food to be better on Celebrity. Not overly so, but the ingredients seemed to be if higher quality and some of the main dishes in the MDR would only be found in the specialty restaurants onboard Royal.

[Jason.H.]

Celebrity sure has some nice Itineraries! Just slightly over my budget though. One day. 

[JLMoran]

Some Celebrity itineraries are nice, some seem far less impressive to me. In particular, Royal has a once-a-year trip that goes to Norway and Iceland, before either returning to England some years or doing a full transatlantic to the US with additional stops in Canada and New England. The TA is a really port-intensive trip with hardly any sea days, maybe 5 out of a 14-night run.

With Celebrity, I've also seen just one itinerary that goes to Iceland; but that one has fewer port days in Iceland, no visit to Norway, and only other country visited is Ireland. IIRC, it was a 15-night cruise with 9 sea days!! That is not something I want to be paying Celebrity's premium over Royal for, thank you very much.

It also seems like Royal offers better itineraries if you want to visit Croatia or other parts of the Adriatic sea, based on some research I was doing the other week. I turn 50 in 2020 and I'm starting to look for ideas of a "step up" cruise to celebrate, would like to maybe go for a more "premium" line and/or step up to suite class for that trip.

I also don't get why Celebrity doesn't offer more longer itineraries vs. Royal. On Royal I can find itineraries up to 16 nights (generally TAs). On Celebrity I have yet to find an itinerary longer than 14 nights, even for TA cruises.

Maybe I misunderstand the point of a "premium" line, but for me it's not just to have a nicer ship. I expect more / better port options for that extra money, longer itinerary options than the "mass market" lines offer, and fewer (or at worst the same percentage of) sea days on any given itinerary. Maybe I'm just not looking at the right "premium" line, and for Europe I need to consider other lines outside the RCCI family.